DVDActive uses cookies to remember your actions, such as your answer in the poll. Cookies are
also used by third-parties for statistics, social media and advertising. By using this website, it is
assumed that you agree to this.

Forums - Discs & Movies - Idiotic audiences

25th October 2005 18:14#1

I've just gotten back from my vacation in Washington where I finally saw A History of Violence. I'm officially counting my self as a member of the "fuck the theater and wait for video" club. This was the last straw.

A History of Violence was, as some of you may have guessed, violent. It was not 'funny' in its violence, at least the majority of it. However, my audience could not help but burst into laughter every time something violent happened. The same thing happened when I saw War of the Worlds, and when Anikan pulled his lightsabre on children in ROTS. These are only three examples, but there are more.

Why can't people take serious and emotionally negative violence? Is the majority of the movie going public so emotionally fragile and maladjusted that they have to break into nervous laughter anytime their sensibilities are challenged? It's sad when I can't depend on an audience to be mature enough to handle the movie they've come to watch, and it has official made me sick.

Yeah, sometimes it's OK to laugh at the absuditiy of violence in film, for instance Land of the Dead had some genuinely funny moments of gory excess.

I also hate the snide, loud-ass comments some jerk-offs have to make when the credits role. IF you didn't like A History of Violence, feel free to express it to people you know, but the strangers in the audience don't need to hear about it. I can't wait for the day when movies aren't judged by their theatrical grosses anymore so I won't have to attend the theater in support of a film ever again.

26th October 2005 14:14#6

On a similar subject...What I also hate, is when a good movie is on the tube and I get into it....the problem is that they cut off the violence scenes and curse words....what's up with that??...oh yeah...young viewers.

26th October 2005 15:25#7

Quote: Why can't people take serious and emotionally negative violence? Is the majority of the movie going public so emotionally fragile and maladjusted that they have to break into nervous laughter anytime their sensibilities are challenged? It's sad when I can't depend on an audience to be mature enough to handle the movie they've come to watch, and it has official made me sick.

Maybe filmmakers have actually forgotten how to film emotionally negative violence. The Anakin scene you point out was unintentionally funny for a lot of people because it wasn't well done.

26th October 2005 18:41#8

I reckon a lot of people force themselves to laugh as a form of escapism - that is, to avoid getting upset at the onscreen violence. The same reason why some people won't allow themselves to be drawn into a compelling horror film, in case they get too scared. Instead they decide to make themselves feel better by the only means possible - force out a laugh.

Of course you do get a lot of violence that is meant to be intentionally funny. Ichi the Killer for example. Lovely stuff.

26th October 2005 19:17#9

Adrian, the Anakin scene was a bad example that I used because I assumed everyone here would know what I was talking about.

I think War of the Worlds is a better example, as I think most of us can agree that Speilberg filmmed a little girl seeing bodies floating down a river quite effectively. I love dark humor as much, if not more so than the next guy, I just don't get why people won't let themselves be effected by real, serious, dark imagery. I honestly see it as weakness.

27th October 2005 4:34#10

I agree. I also hate it when somebody ever turns on a gameboy in the theatre, it rarely ever happens, but when I was at an early screening of The Island, I remember that a guy turned on his gameboy at about the 1 hour and 30 minute mark. Thankfully, the person sitting next to him told him to turn it off.

27th October 2005 9:03#11

It doesn't take much for some idiot to ruin your film. But it has to be said the communal experience of cinema can be a great thing. I remember the audiences bursting into applause in Attack of The Clones when Yoda pulled his lightsaber and started leaping around like a green arsed fly or when Michael Keaton first rasped "I'm Batman"

27th October 2005 10:03#12

I think the worst experience I ever had in the cinema was The Matrix Reloaded. No, the film wasn't THAT bad, but the two idiotic girls sat behind me, who insisted on talking through the entirety of the Arhitect's speech, almost drove me to wait for the DVD of Revolutions rather than braving the cinema.

27th October 2005 17:02#14

Teenage girls should be banned from theaters. I went to see The Exorcist (the Version You've Never Seen) when it was re-released and they had an usher working the door to keep out underage kids, but as soon as the movie started, the usher left and this pack of teenage girls wondered end and giggled the entire movie.

Quick Reply

Message

Enter the message here then press submit. The username, password and message are required. Please make the message constructive, you are fully responsible for the legality of anything you contribute. Terms & conditions apply.